You Can Go Home Again
by Caryce Jade
Summary: First in a series. Arthur offers Percy the chance to come home.
1. Chapter 1

**Nope, I don't own them. Sorry.**

AN: This story does not take place in the same universe as "Reassembly". It takes place in a universe where there is a Hermione/Ron pairing with an eventual Hermione/Percy pairing. It's just going to take time to get to that. This is the intro to that universe, and will probably be a two parter. Oh, and I'm still working on "Reassembly", it's just that this wouldn't leave me alone until I had at least started on it.

Arthur Weasley stood outside his son's office. Though his department and Percy's rarely interacted, he made this walk at least once a week. Despite the fact that he and Percy had not spoken in almost four years, he still had to see for himself that his son was all right. He knew, via the ministry grapevine, that his son did the same thing, deliberately walking through his department on a fairly regular basis.

He turned to go, to keep walking down to the cafeteria, when a sound stopped him. It was a baby crying. He went back over to his son's office door.

"...get this done, Amy, you and I can take off early, hmm?"

Arthur was surprised. His son had a baby? He straightened a bit, gathered up his courage, and got ready to knock.

"Are you Daddy's girl, Amy? I think you are." The baby gurgled at the sound of her father's voice.

Arthur knocked on the door.

"Enter."

Arthur walked into the office. His normally extremely tidy son's office was a disaster area. That, however, was nothing compared to the shock he experienced when he saw his son.

Exhausted would have been a generous understatement. He had obviously lost weight, since his clothes were extremely baggy. His face was pale, and his eyes were very shadowed behind his glasses. He was holding a baby, obviously a girl, and talking to her.

He looked up, and his eyes widened in shock. "Dad?"

"Percy." He gave a slight smile. "I'm assuming this lovely young lady is your daughter?"

"Yes. Amy Elizabeth Weasley."

"A lovely name." He looked critically at his son. "How are you?"

Percy sat down and indicated to his father to do the same. "Tired. Since Penny left, it's just been Amy and me."

"Penny left you?" Percy had married Penelope Clearwater shortly after he had started working for the ministry.

"Yeah. She didn't want kids. Amy was obviously unexpected. Penny was furious when she found out. Since we don't really have abortive procedures in our world, she wanted to go out into the muggle world and 'get rid of her problem', as she put it. She felt that having kids would destroy her career. Anyway, I kept sabotaging that effort, since I wanted the child, even if she didn't, until it was too late for her to do that, which made her even angrier. She refused to recognize the pregnancy, didn't even show up to the baby shower, and when she went into labor, kept screaming about how Amy and I had ruined her life." He ran a weary hand across his face.

"Can I hold her?" Arthur asked. He couldn't imagine anyone hating a baby so much that they wanted to kill it before it was born.

"Sure." He passed Amy to his father. She opened one sleepy blue eye, then closed it again. he settled back in his chair and continued his tale.

"The worst came after Amy was born. I was the one that got up to feed and change her. Penny wouldn't even look at her. I would go to work, come home on my lunch break, and Penny would be gone, with Amy in the same diaper I'd put her in that morning and no bottle. This went on until Penny and I had a huge row about it, and she packed her things and left. I was served with divorce papers two days later. I've since filed a countersuit demanding full custody of Amy, with a demand for child support. Nothing outrageous, just a small reminder of the child she rejected every paycheck."

Arthur nodded absently. "How long has it been since she left?"

"Two months. Amy has been with me constantly since then."

"Come home, Percy." Arthur's voice took on an intensity that it rarely did. "Come home. You're ready to drop if you don't get some rest soon. Your mother and I can take care of Amy for a day or two while you get some rest."

"Really? After all the things I said..." He broke off and looked down at his hands, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Really. If we didn't forgive you, didn't rally around you when you really need it, we wouldn't be family." He met his son's eyes. "If you want, you can move back in with us. It's been really quiet there since everybody's moved out."

Percy looked stunned. Just this morning, he'd been worrying about the rent on the flat he and Penny had shared. It took the majority of his income to pay it, plus buying the ingredients for Amy's formula, diapers, clothes, and a little bit of food for himself. "You don't have to do that, Dad. You and Mum deserve time to yourselves..."

"Yes, we do, but time to yourself gets dull after a while, and your mother's running out of things to clean. Another grandchild to spoil might do the trick. Are you going to come home?"

"Yes, Dad, I'm coming home."

"Tonight?"

"Tonight."

"I'll owl your mother and let her know. We can tell her the rest later. For now, let's put this little lady in her basket and eat some lunch."


	2. Chapter 2

**Nope, still not mine.**

That evening had Percy sitting at the table with Amy in his arms, waiting for his brothers and sister to arrive. It would just be Fred, George, Ron and Hermione, and Ginny and Harry, since Bill and Charlie were both away. He was extremely nervous, to the point of nausea.

"Breathe, Percy," Molly said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be all right. There may be a small row, but it'll be quickly resolved, and, given the circumstances, it'll be resolved in your favor." She looked sternly at her third son. "As soon as possible after dinner, I want you to go upstairs, take a shower, and get some sleep."

"All right, Mum." The lease on the flat was a monthly, so he had eleven days to pack up all of his and Amy's things.

"Hey, Mum! Where are you?" Percy recognized Ron's voice, though there was more maturity in it than he remembered.

"In the kitchen."

Ron walked into the kitchen, Hermione behind him. Both of their eyes widened when they saw Percy sitting at the table. Something big must have happened.

Hermione made the first move. "Hello, Percy," she said, sitting down across from him.

"Hello, Hermione," he said softly. "Hello, Ron."

Ron sat down stiffly beside his wife. He still wasn't sure how to react to his estranged brother sitting there. Finally, he took a deep breath. "Hello, Percy. What's going on? Is this your daughter?"

"Yes. This is Amy." There was an evident not of pride in his voice.

"Where's..."

"That's why Percy is here," Molly cut in. "I'm only going to make him tell the story once, after everybody gets here."

Ron nodded. He looked his brother up and down. He looked exhausted, like he hadn't really slept in a long time. He observed that the hand holing Amy's bottle was trembling slightly. "Can I take her for a little bit?" Ron asked. The circumstances leading up to the end of the war, as well as his new job, had given him a maturity that he hadn't had four years ago.

Percy looked grateful as he handed the baby to his brother, who immediately started playing with her.

"How old is she?" Hermione asked.

"Three months."

"Well, look who it is!" Fred's voice boomed into the kitchen.

"Didn't expect to see you here when Dad said it was important!" George added.

"Place hasn't been the same without you!" They both chorused, sitting down on either side of him.

"So, what happened?" Fred asked.

"Harry and Ginny aren't here yet," Molly said. "I'm only going to make him tell the story once."

"We're here!" Ginny said, coming into the kitchen, Harry following her. She was obviously pregnant.

"All right, now that everybody's here," Arthur said, coming into the room, "I'm sure you're probably wondering why Percy and Amy are here. First off, he's come back home. I'll let him tell the rest."

"First," Percy said, meeting the eyes of each one of his siblings, and, for the two that were married, their spouses. "I'm sorry. I have been for a long time, I've just never gotten the courage to say it." He took a deep breath, then the story he had told his father earlier that day began pouring out.

When he had finished, the silence in the kitchen was overwhelming. Then Ron passed Amy to his wife before he exploded. "That bitch!" he hissed, banging his fist on the table.

Ginny ran over to the other side of the table and threw her arms around her brother, and Fred and George were soundly thumping him.

When the pandemonium died down, Harry spoke up. "It's better, really, that she left," he said quietly. "There's few things worse than being raised by someone that really doesn't want you. Even if things are hard, if you're wanted, well, that means a lot."

Dinner was a quiet affair, Arthur and Molly having resolved to owl Bill and Charlie the next morning.

Amy seemed to have taken with Ron the most out of her aunts and uncles. She would protest if she were handed to anyone other than him or her father.

Finally, everybody left. "That went better than I thought it would," Percy said softly to no one in particular.

"It did. We had forgiven you a long time ago. All that really remains is for you to forgive yourself. Now go get some sleep. I'll get up with Amy tonight," Molly said, ushering her son upstairs.

As Molly looked at her sleeping granddaughter's face, she made a vow: That they would all be such a big presence in Amy's life that Penny's absence would be of little consequence.


End file.
